This invention generally relates to the field of program guide information processing and more particularly, to a system and method of processing and displaying program guide information so that information about an existence of a selected program in a program guide can be easily conveyed to a user.
Electronic devices such as televisions and personal computers (PC) require a control system that includes a user interface system. Typically, a user interface provides information to a user and simplifies use of the device. One example of a user interface is an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) in a television system.
An EPG is an interactive, on-screen display feature that displays information analogous to TV listings found in local newspapers or other print media. In addition, an EPG also includes information necessary for collating and decoding programs. An EPG provides information about each program within the time frames covered by the EPG which typically ranges from the next hour up to several days. The information contained in an EPG includes programming characteristics such as, for example, channel number, program title, start time, end time, elapsed time, time remaining, rating (if available), topic, theme, and a brief description of the program""s content. EPGs are usually arranged in a two-dimensional table or grid format with time information on one axis and program source information such as channel information on the other axis.
Unlike non-interactive guides that reside on a dedicated channel and merely scroll through the current programming on the other channels for the next 2 to 3 hours, EPGs allow viewers to select any channel at any time during some period into the future, e.g., up to several days forward. Further EPG features include the ability to highlight individual cells of the grid containing program information. Once highlighted, the viewer can perform functions pertaining to that selected program. For instance, the viewer could instantly switch to that program if it is currently being aired. Viewers could also program one touch video cassette recording (VCR) or the like if the television is properly configured and connected to a recording device. Such EPGs are known in the art and described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,353,121; 5,479,268; and 5,479,266 issued to Young et al. and assigned to StarSight Telecast, Inc.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,106, issued to Chaney et al., and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, describes in detail an exemplary embodiment including data packet structure necessary to implement an exemplary program guide system. The exemplary data packet structure is designed so that both the channel information (e.g., channel name, call letters, channel number, type, etc.) and the program description information (e.g., title, rating, star, etc.) relating to a program may be transmitted from a program guide database provider to a receiving apparatus efficiently.
User interfaces such as EPGs are applicable to analog and digital television systems and to other electronic devices such as personal computers. As electronic devices become increasingly complex with a multitude of features, the need for a robust and easy-to-use user interface becomes ever more important. For example, separate electronic systems having respective interfaces for controlling features of each system are now being combined into a single system requiring a single user interface. One specific example is the so-called PCTV which includes features of both a personal computer and a television. The user interface system for such a device must provide both clear communication of computer and television related information and provide for simple control of both computer and television related features.
One problem with the current EPG system is that the program guide is typically provided in a fixed format (i.e., in a two-dimensional grid format with time information on one axis and channel information on the other axis, as described above). Since the time information axis is always labeled to show a particular time period (e.g., 5:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.), only programs occurring at that particular time period can be displayed on the screen. In other words, if a user wants to find a program occurring before or after that time period, the user would have to scroll back or forth through the whole EPG along the time axis.
This limitation of the current EPG to only be able to show programs in a particular time period presents special problems in an EPG having searching capabilities. An example of the search capabilities is described in a co-pending U.S. application, bearing Ser. No. 08/687,285, filed Jul. 25, 1996, in the name of Maze, et al., and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention. In an apparatus described in that application, a user is able to enter a search term such as xe2x80x9csportsxe2x80x9d to search if there is any occurrence of a program having program guide information matching in whole or in part the entered search term. If there is a match, the EPG will then automatically advance to the time period of the first occurrence and highlights the corresponding program. An EPG screen similar to that described in the Maze application, showing the first occurrence of a selected program being highlighted is illustrated in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the first occurrence of a matched program being highlighted in this example is a program in cell 101. The highlighted program is xe2x80x9csportscenterxe2x80x9d and the program is being shown at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN, channel 206. In this prior EPG system, however, in order for a user to find the next occurrence of a program in the EPG matching the user criteria, the user has to scroll through the whole EPG. Particularly, there is no way for a user to know in advance by looking at the screen shown in FIG. 1. whether there is any occurrence of a matched program in a specific channel, such as CNN, let alone when that occurrence will be. The only way to find that out is by scrolling through the whole EPG and carefully watching out for a highlighted program on CNN, for example.
The present inventor recognizes the problems described above in the existing EPGs. A primary object of the present invention is to overcome at least one of the aforementioned problems by providing an EPG capable of conveying information about a previous or future occurrence of a program, without the user having to scroll through or looking carefully at the whole EPG.
Therefore, a method and a related system for displaying program information in an image representing a time interval, said method comprising the steps of:
determining from said program information a first program matching a criteria and occurring at a time outside of said time interval; and
generating an icon indicating that said first program matching said criteria exists and occurs at a time outside of said time interval.